Originally Posted by hindsight2020

There is one, its called the ANG/AFRC.

Originally Posted by rickair7777

Somebody has to do the grownup jobs.

Originally Posted by hindsight2020

Easy on the condescension, my tactical level job is plenty grown up. My experience as a senior member in said role is valued and my schedules work well for my family needs and circumstances, which is to say they empower me to keep serving, something the service ought not to take for granted.

Direct your "grown up job" nonsense to the regular component who can't seem to retain talent if their life depended on it. It'll be a cold day in hell when I start taking aspersions of vocational cherry-picking from airline pilots, of all people.

Originally Posted by AirBear

Doing the calculator at military.com this is what I come up with for an 8yr O-3 drawing BAS, BAQ, and Flight Pay: $123,830. That's using CLT for BAQ which is a low to moderate COL.
Throw in the max bonus for signing your life away ($50K) and you're looking at $173,830 annually.
After making O-4 it's $196,078 total with bonus. O-5 is $204,841.

Looking at someone like Delta you're making over $150K by year 2. And factor the spouse working, something they may not be able to do when getting a PCS every 3-4 years.

The Air Force has never been able to manage their pilot force. In 1989 we were offered a bonus to sign up until year 14. Back then the commitment for pilot training was 6-7 years I think. I was in from spring 1981 until early 1989.
I remember how the wives of the O-4's were so angry because O-3's would be making more if they took the bonus. O-4's weren't eligible. Of course some squadron commanders misused the bonus as a "loyalty test", if you didn't take it you weren't a "team player".

I remember reading in the past few years they changed the promotion percentage from O-3 to O-4 to 100% to encourage pilots to stay in. Basically unless you really screwed up you'd make Major. That was a smart move that might have helped some. But AFAIK they haven't done the one thing many pilots want.....to keep on flying, not do desk jobs. A professional pilot track.

Originally Posted by rickair7777

Not condescension, I would have stayed operational until the day I retired if I could have. They had to drag me kicking and screaming to staff and every minute of it was what you'd expect. But by the time I was done I realized that somebody has to do it, and you really want that somebody to have a deep operational background.

"Grownup" as in the fun is over and now it's a job.

It's disingenuous to complain that they should just let pilots fly... if they didn't need experienced pilot officers in major leadership positions, they'd do like the army and just use warrants. Army can do that because aviation is very much a sideshow in their world, they don't need or want stick monkeys driving their big picture.

Originally Posted by Hobbit64

Spoken like a person who either has never served in a standard Army Aviation unit or a Flag Officer with little to no relevant/current information; or both.